As you're turning in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, the last page, yes, we made it. Or we haven't quite yet. In about 40 minutes, we will have made it. I once heard a seminary professor say that it's with a great sense of joy that you finish a book that you labor through, and it's with great joy that you begin a book to begin laboring. Fortunately, those two things come usually in consecutive Sundays. You finish one book and you start another. We look forward to doing that, perhaps next week, taking some weeks in the Book of Ruth, in the Old Testament, and we'll spend five or six weeks there, and then look at some of the Advent text in preparing us for the birth of Christ. But for this morning, Luke chapter 24 verses 50 through 53, commonly known as the Ascension. We don't have a lot in the scriptures, at least directly attributed to the Ascension itself. In fact, Luke alone expounds the Ascension more than any other. He ends this book with the Ascension, and he opens his counterpart book, Acts, to follow with the Ascension as well. I'll read these verses and then we'll take a few moments to consider what the Ascension and Christ should mean for us. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They were continually in the temple blessing God. A couple of things before we get into the text by way of exposition. There are those that say that the ascension happened on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, this is why the whole counsel of God is necessary for us to know. Because when we take the end of Luke with the beginning of Acts, we see that there were 40 days. between the resurrection and the ascension. So there was no ascension on Easter Sunday. The ascension comes 40 days after, and then, I'm sorry, he's with the apostles for 40 days, and then 10 days after the 40 days, Pentecost comes. and the Holy Spirit is poured out. It's important for us to recognize, as I mentioned last week, that these verses that we picked up on in verse 36, it says, as they were talking about these things, those began on Easter Sunday, but the entirety of the time where Jesus appeared to the apostles on the first Sunday, and then to Thomas eight days later, and to other women, and to Peter, And then again to the apostles as we have in John chapter 20. All of those things would have happened over that period of time as well before the ascension takes place. So the ascension did not happen on Easter Sunday. The resurrection, yes. The ascension, no. Secondly, in verse 52, it says they worshipped him. This is the only place in Luke's gospel where we see worship of men attributed to Jesus Christ. We see the angels praising, we see people early on praising him, but they worship. And this is important for us to understand because only God is to be worshiped. These apostles have come to the point now with the death, burial, resurrection, and now the ascension of the Lord where they understood He is the second person of the Godhead. He is God of every God, man of every man. He is who he said he is, and he worshipped, and they worshipped, they worshipped. So just those couple of commentary thoughts, if you will, before we get into the text. As I mentioned earlier, the verses here serve as a segue in the two books that Luke gave us, the Luke Acts books that some say should really just be one book anyway. They conclude the gospel of Luke and introduce the book of Acts. In one, his gospel, we have the foundation laid for the church. that being Jesus Christ. In Acts, we have the building up of that church through the proclamation of that Jesus Christ by the apostles as they go out in the power of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul helps us here. He kind of reminds us of the first, in 1 Corinthians 3.11, the gospel of Luke. No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Then in Ephesians chapter 2, he says, you're no longer aliens and strangers, but fellow citizens with saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. You say, well, wait a minute. He just said in 1 Corinthians that Jesus is the foundation. There can be no other foundation. Does that not contradict it? Well, no, it complements it. Because what he's saying in Ephesians 2 is it's the proclamation of Christ and the preaching of the apostles, them preaching that foundation, the truth that was passed along to them both by Christ and now more fully in the Spirit. So this foundation of the apostles of prophets was their preaching. As Paul said, I preach Christ crucified. And then he says, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. That's the book of Acts. The church is being built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. So that's what Luke gives us. So what we have this morning ties the finished earthly work of Christ for the salvation of men, again, the foundation in Luke, to the ongoing work that he left with the apostles in what we considered last week in the Great Commission, is commissioning them to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ and Christ alone. They were to stay in Jerusalem, as we saw last week. And again, in Acts chapter one, he'll reiterate it, until the Spirit of God came upon them. And at that point, they were to go out into the world and preach Christ. So this transition's marked by a specific event. This event's called the ascension of Jesus Christ. Again, Luke is the one who expounds this more fully than any other. This ascension marks the end of Jesus' earthly ministry that began all the way back at his incarnation, where he, as the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, took on flesh, manhood, humanity. not just because it was fitting, it was, but because it was necessary. We briefly touched on that this morning in Sunday school, the necessity of a man being the sacrifice for men. And so the Ascension marks the end of that earthly ministry where he takes on flesh and his specific calling to accomplish salvation for man. That work is now complete. This is what is finalized with the ascension. That body, however, sinless and innocent, that was crucified, buried, and risen again, conquering Satan, sin, and death, is the very body that ascends, though now glorified, to be with the Father. All of these things are important for us to remember because it's that man, Jesus Christ, that's coming again. Paul puts it this way to his young Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. He says, there is one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The man Christ Jesus, of whom Moses was a type, of whom Abraham was a type, of whom David was a type, that's the man. This is that, is what Paul says to Timothy. So concerning the ascension, Leon Morris wrote, Quote, there is an air of finality about it. It is the decisive close of one chapter and the beginning of another, not just in books in the Bible, but in the life of Christ. It's the consummation of Christ's earthly work, the indication to his followers that his mission is accomplished. His work among them comes to a decisive end. They can expect to see him in the old way no more. Unquote. However, I would clarify, and Morris would agree, they would see him again. In fact, that's what we read in Acts chapter one, where he ascends to be with the Father and the angels look at the apostles and then say, why are you still looking for him? The same way he left, he's coming back again. Not just in the air, but in that body. He's coming back to receive his church. And so this man, the Redeemer, capital R, will come again and receive the redeemed, little r, and their resurrected bodies will then ascend to be with Him in all eternity. That's what this event, the ascension, marks. And so, I want us to look at this text, these four verses, in two ways. The bulk of it will be with the first point. I want us to see the offices of Christ that are displayed in verses 51 and 52. The offices of Christ have been classically defined as prophet, priest, and king. And he ministers visibly in all three offices in these verses. And then secondly, we'll see the worship of Christ displayed. As I mentioned, they worshiped him. as he presented himself clarifying one last time on this earth his office of prophet, priest, and king that began and will continue on through all eternity. They worshipped. They worshipped. So the first thing I want to have us to consider is the offices of Christ displayed. Lord willing, Wednesday after next, in our next chapter in the Confession, it's entitled, On Christ the Mediator. And it picks up with another covenant, called the Covenant of Redemption, before the foundation of the world, this agreement between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of what would take place in Ephesians 1, as they fulfilled their purposes in our great salvation. But also in that, we see these offices described. In Chapter 8, Paragraph 1 of the 1689 Confession, it says, it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both. There's that covenant of redemption, to be the mediator between God and man. In other words, the agreement was Christ would be the mediator. The prophet, priest, and king, that mediator is defined by those three offices. Prophet, priest, and king, head and savior of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world, unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. We might have to take a couple of weeks with that one, Stephen. There's a lot there. But what I want us to see this morning is these offices as laid out in the confession coming from the scriptures that Jesus now demonstrates in verses 50 and 51. Notice first, we're gonna go a little ahead to keep the order, prophet, priest, and king, it just sounds better. In verse 51, where we read these words, he parted from them and was carried up. The Ascension portrays Jesus as the last and greatest prophet. Elijah, I mean earlier, I'm sorry, in Luke chapter four, Jesus had linked his ministry with the present nation and that of the prophet Elijah in days past. Later, he talked with Elijah directly on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke chapter 9. Now, like Elijah, Jesus is carried up into heaven. We read of that in 2 Kings chapter 2, where Elijah, I think our children are studying Elijah in Sunday school, is that right? Has he been carried up in the whirlwind yet? It's coming, so you children, you need to listen. Elijah was carried up. Same thought idea, Hebrew and Greek. carried up in a whirlwind in 2 Kings chapter 2, but he also fulfilled Elisha's request for a double blessing of the Spirit. In 2 Kings 2, Elisha asks for a double portion of the spirit, and before he goes, he says, if you see me when I go, you'll have it. If you don't see me when I go, you won't have it. Elisha sees him go up in the whirlwind, and that's clarification of the spirit, the double portion of the spirit that was being left for Elisha to pick up and carry on the mantle of Elisha's prophesy. Remember, Jesus had done a similar thing last week, where in verse 49, he says, Behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you. I'm going to ascend, but I'm sending the Spirit. Elijah ascends in the whirlwind, and the Spirit comes. They would have understood this connection on that day, I would maintain. And then in Acts 1, 9, just like Elijah, when he'd said these things to them, at verse 8, that they were to go into the uttermost parts of the world after the Spirit comes, after he'd said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. And a cloud took him out of their sight, just like it did Elijah. Elijah was a type of Christ. As prophet, Jesus pronounced an end to all our sin. That was his purpose for coming. In the Old Testament, the prophet was the mouthpiece of God's people. So Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, these men were to be God's mouthpiece. They were to speak God's words to the people. In fact, it was often with the preface, thus says the Lord. As God's mouthpiece, they often spoke indictment, woe, curses on the people for their sins. The prophets were not the most popular people in the Old Testament because they preached their need to repent of their sin. The prophet pronounced forgiveness and pardon when such repentance was granted. Jesus is the final and sufficient prophet, the last prophet, he's done all of these for us. He came not just proclaiming the word of God, he did that, but he is the word of God. He came to the world because of sin, Matthew chapter one, he proclaimed our need to repent and believe on him, and he proclaimed our pardon and forgiveness for sin, as we read in Colossians 1, 14. That was his work as prophet, to proclaim himself in the need to repent for the forgiveness of sins. So the first words of Jesus as prophet in his earthly ministry was, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. He parted from them and was carried up, demonstrating visibly just like Elijah, the role of a prophet. Then secondly, in verse 50, backing up a verse, it says, as these things were going on, he lifted his hands and he blessed them. The second thing that we note then concerning the ascension is it portrays Jesus as the last and final high priest. You see, it was the priest that was given the duty, the command, to bring blessings on the people. And here in blessing the apostles, Jesus played the part of a departing priest who, after he'd offered a sacrifice of atonement, after the propitiation of the sins had been made, they would pronounce a blessing on the people. We see this in Leviticus 9 verse 7, Moses said to Aaron, draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people and bring the offering to the people and make atonement for them as the Lord has commanded. So there was the command for the sacrifice of atonement for the priest to make on behalf of himself and for the people. That's Leviticus 9 verse 7. Leviticus 9.22, Aaron lifts up his hands toward the people and bless them, coming down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. So after the sacrifice of atonement had been made, the priest brought blessing on such sacrifice. Now again, this is seen further and more clarified in Leviticus 16, where we see that as the mediator, the high priest entered the holy place and offered the sacrifice of God on behalf of the people one day a year on the day of atonement. Entering the holy place one time a year on the day of atonement. And there he would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat Leviticus 16, 16, because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And this he did year after year after year after year until the last sacrifice was made. And that was Christ. As our mediator and high priest, he offered the sacrifice once for all, but he was that sacrifice, or we might say he is that sacrifice. And like the priest of old, Christ entered the holy place, but unlike the priest, he entered to offer himself. He had to enter only once, only one time, where he sprinkled his own blood. on the mercy seat. Turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 9. Pain knew I would get here. Hebrews chapter 9, beginning in verse 24, where this is clearly shown to us. Hebrews 9.24, for Christ is entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things. Gosh, where's Braylon again? Tight. Right? There's the type. He didn't enter into the holy place made with hands, but he did enter into a holy place, into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it off to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest, enter the holy place every year with blood not his own, for then he would have only had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who eagerly are waiting on him. That was the work of mediator. That was the work of the priest, to offer the sacrifice. But then after the atonement was made, the blessing. What happens in our text? He led them out as far as Bethany, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. Second time, while he blessed them, he parted from them. The atonement had been made. The sacrifice had been made. Just like when Aaron would come down off of the mountain or out of the temple after making sacrifice for the people and offer the blessing, now the last sacrifice has been made and the last blessing for such sacrifice has been made in Christ. That's his role as the priest. After the sacrifice of atonement, he lifts up his hands and he blesses them. I think that probably they would have connected those dots on this day. And then third, we see his work as the office of king. It says he was taken from them, parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. You've already read in Ephesians chapter 2 earlier and in other places, and you might say, well, where do you see royalty here? Where do you see majesty? Where do you see that the role of king or the office of king is being demonstrated here? Well, again, I ask the question, where did he go? Where did he go? He went to heaven. We see that in a number of places. We also see where he went. in heaven. Numerous times, in fact, I've got eight here, same phrase, that he went to heaven and he's at the right hand of God. Romans 8, 34, Ephesians 1, 20, Colossians 3, 1, Hebrews 1, 3, and 8, 1, and 10, 12, and 12, 2, and 1 Peter 3, 22. Folks, that's every writer of every of the New Testament books after the ascension of Christ attribute that Jesus went to the right hand of God, the Father. I would say that's important. The right hand of God the Father. What is the idea of the right hand? It's a place of authority. It's a place of rule. In fact, when we read in Acts 111, the counterpart to this text, we see he said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him going to heaven. And he's seated at the right hand of God. And as king, Jesus rules in such a way that sin, death, Satan, no longer has a reign. In the Old Testament, the monarchy, one wrote, was established for the peace, prosperity, and welfare of the nation. The prototype was David, right? He was the type. They pointed to the antitype, Jesus Christ as king. There was no king as beloved as King David. He was God's man. The people chose Saul. God would not have them have a king. He wanted to be their king. His desire was to rule over them, but he granted them, in their sinfulness, the desire of their heart. and they choose Saul. David was God's man and vice-regent among the people. David, as long as he was on the throne, the nation of Israel would say, we have peace. All is well. Few things, one writer said, comfort a nation more than having a ruler of righteousness and strength sitting on the throne of power. This was David. He reigned over Israel. He administered justice and equity to all the people. We read in 2 Samuel 8, verse 15. There was no king that executed justice and righteousness like King David on this earth. However, we have a king greater than David. His name is Jesus Christ. He came in the line of David. He came as a son of David. He even came as David's Lord. We read in Matthew 22. This king is the ruler of the kings of the earth. We read that in Psalm 2 and again in Revelation 1 5. As we read earlier in Revelation 19, he is the king of kings and lord of lords, including David. And he. Rules with perfect justice, perfect equity, perfect righteousness. So as our king, he's fought our battles in our place. And he rules in such a way that sin ought not have any reign over you. Satan ought have no control over the life of the child of a believer. And death has been conquered in Christ. He is our prophet, priest, and king. And on this day, Visually, as he's taken up, as Elijah was, they saw him as prophet. As he blessed them, after the offering had already been made for sin, once for all, they see him as priest. And as the angel pronounced, he's going into heaven, and the writers tell us that he's sitting at the right hand of God, just waiting for that clarion call to go, Because that's the only thing left on the agenda for the prophet, priest, and king is to come and get his people. That's what they saw on that day, which led them, in verse 52, to worship him. We see the worship of Christ displayed for the first time. Worship. The only one worthy of worship is God himself and no other. Anything else would be an idol. Anything else would be blasphemous. And now with the ascension, the clarification's there. The certainty is there. He is the Son of God. And they worshiped him. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Now this is interesting because you remember last week when Jesus shows up, same body, and he shows up in the room, in the upper room where they're meeting, They were terrified. They didn't know what to do. And now they see him at the ascension and there's joy in their hearts. They're overwhelmed with the security now that he is Messiah, that he is the one that he says, that he was the one who came to conquer sin and to be their king and to be their priest and to be their prophet and they were continually in the temple. Where? The end of the book of Luke ends where it began, in the temple. Luke chapter 1, they're in the temple. Luke chapter 24, they're in the temple. Make no mistake, this is of utmost importance when it comes to Luke. By the time Acts is completed and circulated, however, that temple is no more. the very place that they were gathering together. Now, it began in the upper room, and we read in Acts that the women and others were still gathering in the upper room, but it exploded out of that into the temple. And that temple is destroyed in AD 70. But yet, for Luke, the temple is still an important place, as it always was. in the Old Testament. We saw in Leviticus, the priesthood, the tent, tabernacle, temple symbolizes the presence of God with the people. And yet, now we come to these closing verses, and in AD 70, that temple is destroyed. That's why the people were so devastated. A Jew living in that time, even though this was God's judgment on them as a nation for turning their back on Christ and, in fact, crucifying the Lord Jesus, it devastated them because it marked that God was gone. Ichabod had been written over the nation. The glory had departed with the temple. However, what was cause of darkness and despair for the Jew is the very source of our worship. It's the very foundation for the believer today. How so? Because he, the crucified, he, the risen, he, the ascended Christ, is the temple of God, as are the people of God. with the spirit of God living in their midst. We read that in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16 and 17, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and Peter writes of it in 1 Peter 2, 5. We are the temple of God. It's the people of God where God dwells, in the spirit, in the hearts of his people. So the story does not end in Luke 24, 53, nor does it end at the end of the book of Acts. It still goes on through Christ and His people. So I would close with a couple of things that I hope would draw us to Him in worship. What is Jesus currently doing? This is in seminary places called the Jesus Session. sitting at the right hand of God. The time between his ascension and his coming again is known as Christ's Session. What is he doing now at present? We know what he did past. We just looked at all of that in prophet, priest, and king. But what's he doing now, today, as prophet, priest, and king, as he sits at the right hand of God? Well, as prophet, He continues to reveal the riches of salvation in us and through us by the spirit of truth that he promised. He told them to preach Christ. He tells us to go into the world and take the gospel and to be a witness for him, to be his prophet, to be his witness of truth along the way. We're still called to be the witnesses of these things, just like the apostles were. The book of Acts ends with Paul saying in Acts 28, 31, he proclaimed the kingdom of God, taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. And that's what ought to be true of every believer. Boldness, without hindrance, we ought to go into the world with the gospel. That world begins in our home. That world expands to the workplace, into the church, into the world. Wherever God has placed us, we are called to go to be light in the midst of darkness. So what's he doing at present? In the spirit of Christ, the word himself who indwells us. Body sitting at the right hand of the Father, still our prophet. As priests, he continues to intercede for us. We see this twice in Scripture. Romans 8.34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. That's the work of the priest, the mediator, to pray For the people, what's he doing now, today, in the midst of your good days and your bad days, in the midst of when things are going well and when you're hurting and you're suffering, in times where sometimes it's going so well you forget to pray, and at times you're suffering so much you don't even know what to pray. He's praying. He's praying for you. Hebrews 7.25, consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Always lives to make intercession for them. Who's the them? Those who've received the once for all sacrifice for their sins, who are the children of God. The same. And then as king, he continues to reign for us. We read that earlier in Ephesians 1. I'll just remind you of those verses, Ephesians 1.20 that we read earlier. The immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and powers and dominion, above every name, and on and on it goes. He continues to rule and reign, and all things have been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 3, 22. I don't believe we looked at that text, but 1 Peter 3, verse 22, Peter wrote, He's gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. He still rules and reigns in the office of king. Now, the Heidelberg Catechism, you may not be familiar with this catechism. I would encourage you to get it. It's rich. You can't read Joel Beeky without being introduced to the Heidelberg Catechism. But anyway, in question 31 of that catechism, the question is, why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? And the answer brings out the fullness of his current work of prophet, priest, and king. Why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? The answer, because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us the secret counsel of his will of God concerning our deliverance. In other words, Ephesians 1, I mean 2, yeah, the end of Ephesians 1 that Paul was praying that we might know this power. He says that's his work as prophet. Our only high priest, who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body, and who continually pleads our cause with the father. And our eternal king, who governs us by his word and spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us. See, all three of those descriptions of prophet, priest, and king speak to his current work as prophet, priest, and king. So what is Jesus currently doing? He's still acting in the office as mediator of prophet, priest, and king. But what is he preparing for us? That's the second question. That's future. Remember he told the apostles, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I'm going to bring you home? What's he preparing for? When Colossians 3, again, Colossians 3 verse 1 speaks to where he is now. It's one of the texts that talks about him being raised to sit at the right hand of God the Father. In verse 1 of Colossians 3, if you've been raised with Christ, seek things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Verse 4, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. The Redeemer, capital R, is coming to get the redeemed. Paul puts it this way. The husband's coming to get his bride. The body of Christ will fully and finally be glorified and fully redeemed. Paul speaks of our past redemption and our past adoption, but he also speaks of future redemption and future adoption in Romans chapter 8. That's the picture. We are redeemed, but we'll be fully redeemed. We will be fully glorified. We will be fully fit to worship our prophet, priest, and king just as they were on that day when we ascend to be with Him forever and ever. And then in 1 John 3, verse 2, Having spoken, verse one, of the love of the Father he's given us by calling us children of God, he says in verse two, beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. The apostles on that day saw that. They saw him as he is. We have yet to see that. The apostles on that day saw the holes in his hand, were able to put their finger in, and they saw his feet and his side. They knew that this was the risen, glorified Christ. Whatever form that took, it showed up in that room that day. They've seen that. Just like I said last week, it was all well and good for the women and for those that had seen the empty tomb, and there were those that had seen the risen Christ, but they hadn't yet. We saw last week when they saw him. Even Thomas, I won't believe unless I see. Jesus comes a second time and says here. But because you've seen, you're blessed, how much more those who have not seen, and yet by faith, receive me." We will one day see him that way, as they did on the day of the ascension. And we ought to be looking, not up into the sky, waiting and wondering, but we ought to be looking for that day where he comes again. We ought to be longing for that day. when we too will receive our glorified body and be made fit to worship our prophet, priest, and king forever and ever and ever. That's what the Ascension marked. It was the end of his coming to seek and save that which is lost. That's done. No more work needs to be done. When he went to the cross and said, it is finished, and the father raised him in the power of the spirit from the dead, vindicating his perfect life, all that was necessary for man to be saved is accomplished. The only thing left on the glorious calendar is for him to come and get his redeemed. In between those two things, all of the elect will come to the knowledge of Christ as their Savior and be reconciled to God through Him. Dear friends, that is the foundation of our worship. That is the source of our worship. That is the reason that we worship. It's because of what Christ has already accomplished. and our belief and hope in what He still has for us. Let's pray. Father, again, the Ascension marked an end and a beginning. I pray that we would know that this day, the end being our great salvation, the end being our great salvation, that we will, as children of God, be justified sanctified and glorified. Those of us that know Christ savingly have been justified, declared not guilty in the courtroom of God. Nothing can ever change that if we truly are in Christ. And yet we know sin remains, and so we need to be sanctified. Pleading the cross and going to the cross, reminding of our forgiveness for sin, that it's already been conquered, that it no longer reigns in us. And then, Father, one day the very presence of sin will be removed. No indication that sin ever existed when we are glorified in the eternity with you. Father, we don't know what that will be like. We can only speculate. The Father, help us to have a greater desire and longing to worship you because of what you've done, what you are doing, and what you will do for your saints. It's in the name of Christ I pray.